After MU held on for the home victory despite some free-throw struggles in overtime (7 for 14), junior guard Markus Howard let out a primal scream.

"All the emotion, all the build-up, kind of bottled up," Howard said. "Then it was kind of being let out.

"This is definitely a big game for us. Each and every year people always talk about how big this game is. You try to block out the outside noise and really try to be internal within our program about how important this game was."

Junior big man Ed Morrow Jr. and freshman forward Joey Hauser were both playing in their first MU-UW game and each made plays critical to the victory.

Morrow, a transfer from Nebraska, made a huge block on UW star Ethan Happ with 35 seconds left in regulation and the game tied at 61.

Happ had given MU's defense fits the whole game and finished with a collegiate-high 34 points and 11 rebounds. He seemed to have an easy layup before Morrow swooped in and swatted the shot out of bounds.

"That was a huge play," MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "That was going to be two points because Happ is too good. That was a great, great play."

"I thought we had some good ones," Gard said. "And we had the right shooters, for the most part, taking them. You have to be able to find other ways to survive days like that, when that ball doesn't go in."

Happ carried the load for UW on offense, shooting 16 for 21.

"There's only so much you can do with that guy," Sam Hauser said. "He's an All-American for a reason. He's a great player.

"He's going to get his, you've just got to limit the other guys around him."

In a stretch of seven days, MU has victories over Kansas State, which was ranked No. 10 in the USA Today coaches poll on Dec. 1, and now UW, which checked in at 16th in the coaches poll and No. 12 in the Associated Press rankings.

The Golden Eagles have come a long way from a 96-73 loss at Indiana on Nov. 14.

"We've crossed a couple bridges these last few games," Sam Hauser said. "And now we just have to keep building off it and keep building our résumé."